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Select the icon, the globe icon on the bottom part, and choose Interpretation, or you may select English or Portuguese. Note that this earnings call is being recorded and will be provided on the company's IR website online, where you can also already find the earnings release. During the presentation, all participants will have their mics off. Soon after, we'll begin the Q&A session. To submit a question, please select the Q&A icon on the bottom part of your screen. Write your name, company, and language to enter the queue. As you announce the request to activate your mic, it will appear on the screen. Then you must activate your mic and submit questions. We'd like to instruct you that you please send all of your questions at once. Information in this presentation as well as possible statements that could be made during the earnings call related to future perspectives on the business, forecasts, and operational targets represent beliefs and assumptions of the company's management. as well as information that is currently available. Future statements are not a guarantee of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, as they refer to future events, relying on circumstances that could or not occur. Investors must comprehend that economic general conditions, market conditions, and other operational factors may affect the future performance at SAE and lead to results that differ materially from those listed in such statements. Now, I would like to pass the phone to Gabriele Lou, our Investor Relations Director. Hello. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for your participation during our earnings call in the first quarter of 25. I'm going to present the executives that are present today. Our CEO, Belmiro Gomes, Adam Meyers, our Interim CFO, Anderson Castillo, our VP for Operations, Lamir Desanges, VP for Commerce and Logistics. and so that it would be kindly for people and sustainability. Now I'll pass the word on to Boney to begin our presentation. Thank you, Gabi. So first of all, I want to thank all of you for being present today. Our objective today, as you already saw our numbers, is to quickly present these results. We have more time for Q&A as well. First of all, we would like to share some information we received this week. Acai was listed. by Deloitte as the 100 biggest retailers in the world.

The first time a Brazilian company enters this ranking.

The ranking has been done for over 30 years, but it's the first time a Brazilian company is part of the 100 greatest world retailers. So, moving on to the numbers of the first quarter, we have calendar effect that's important because you have February 29th, and it's shift also in Easter, which affects the total base in the same store base. We reached 20.3 billion in revenue, growth of 7.8%, and the sales in the same store sales was at a level of 5.5% below the inflation rate. So this is mainly due to the strong trade-down effect we've already talked about and these trends towards the reduction due to the inflation. Sorry, I think our presentation just went off, and also because of consumer choices. This trend we've observed strongly among lower-income customers. especially in the northeast region of Brazil. What we've observed is that when you look at the volume in the first quarter in the same store base, the volume is positive. So positive volume without trade-down would represent the same store sales that should be in line with the inflation, which is at about 7.5% and 8%. Both the trade-down effect and the switch of some brands and reductions in sizes of packaging, this has not been kept. It's not a standard trend for all regions of Brazil. It's really connected to CDE social levels. And besides this, SAI has been expanding with 4.4%. And this quarter is really set by the consistency and continuity of our performance, our discipline to generate cash and have really good balance between growth, and also discipline for cash generation, considering the focus on deleveraging. The EBITDA is above 1 billion Riyals and it reaches 5.5%, which is the level in 2021, which is prior to a big expansion project we had with a conversion in the extra stores. So what do we attribute this to? Well, mainly because of maturity, we have a store network that we're going to see in the next quarter that's still under maturity and the rigorous control on expenses and discipline as well as the evolution that our team has been implementing, and I want to say fine-tuning for the results. Cash generation, as we mentioned, reached 1.6 billion. This detail, the EBITDA, is also going to get – we're going to get some more details on this from IMAR, but there's a factor that we should mention. When we look at the pre-IFRS EBITDA, it's double our financial expense. considering that our conversion rate of EBITDA into cash is very strong and the company is generating double the amount of cash than the cost of carrying over the debt, even in this scenario with high interest rates we have. So with this movement in the net income, I've been under recovery obviously, but there's an important advance in regards to the first quarter of last year with an increase of 74% and 95% when you look at the pre and post vision. Another highlight in the first quarter is, as we all know, the company's really focused on the reduction of leverage. So, we've been keeping up the same level of drop that we had in the first quarter from 24 to 23 to 0.60. When you consider the net debt to EBITDA ratio as the discounting the receivables versus the EBITDA accumulated with the last 12 months. So, the last central bank report. Considered another increase of interest rates. The company had already provided some free signs for this, but now we officially consider the new guidance for store openings in 26. There's a postponing of some developments and projects to be able to handle the cost of capital we have and this increase. And so the expansion plan in 26 will be just as 2025 with the target of opening up 10 new units. simulating the same results as 25. We can move on to the next slide, please. Here we share a bit of the vision on the store conversions with the extra and hypermarkets. Of course, that's one of the biggest projects we've ever done in Brazil, so it requires a lot of our attention. But when we look at the EBITDA, especially in the pre-IFRS vision and the network of the stores in 2022, to the first 47 stores we converted were already above the total EBITDA. It was a 6% milestone. So stores from 23 that are still advancing into their second year of operation, they're already at 3%, leading to an average of 5.3 and an increase of 1.3 compared to last year, which explains the increase of 0.3 that we had in our total base. Here it's worth mentioning that due to the profile of the stores, especially the hypermarket stores, is a profile of what you consider the cost of occupation and location of the stores, operational costs and expenses. These stores sometimes have escalators and more elevators. So there's some natural skepticism in the market about if this store network would be able to operate within a cash-for-carry standard of expenses. Similar to the other source, but this is what allowed us to enter regions, which would be almost impossible to reach if we had an organic expansion only, as well as expanding our penetration and share within AB customers. So I think that's what I had to share. Now I'll pass the floor to Amar. He gives us more details on the financials. And then I'll get back to discuss the last slides. Thank you, everyone. You're on mute, Eymar. OK, thank you, Belmira. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for watching our conference, giving a bit of more details on the cash generation and reduction of our debt. We had operational cash generation of 3.1 billion in the CapEx, which was 1.5 billion in the last 12 months, in a way where we consider the free cash flow generation of 1.6 billion. Cost of debt of 1.9 billion and 0.3 in cash generation total. I want to remind you that we discounted 700 million less in receivables, which makes the net debt drop from 13.8 to 13.4 billion. When you look at this differently, on the right side of the screen, you see a gross debt that's almost stable, despite all of the evolution in the interest rates, $15.9 billion compared to $15.7 billion. A gross cash position of very stable, $4.5 billion compared to $4.4 billion in this quarter. And the total amount of disguised receivables of 2.6 billion last year versus 1.9 billion this year. So the adjusted cash position goes up from 1.9 to 2.5 billion, and therefore the net debt drops from 13.8 billion to 13.4 billion. This is a shift that will be accentuated as the quarters move along, where a capex In 12 months, we'll get closer to 1 billion, from 1.5 to 1.2. The cost of debt will remain on a downtrend, most likely at a level that's still very similar. And in compensation, we'll have the operational cash generation that continues to grow due to the store maturity and operational gains, et cetera. On the next slide, we'll also see that this trend with the net debt made our net debt ratio on adjusted EBITDA drop from 3.75 times last year to 3.15 times a year ago, with demonstrating a reduction of 0.6 times, almost 500 million Riyals. And that also demonstrates that The company, in the last 12 months, was already anticipating everything that had been going on before, as well as the traffic modulation decision.

And this one, Eric, that's more mature.

so that in a year that was so complex, this company was able to have this deleveraging effect. 315, which is a seasonal position, which would be a seasonal impact that's negative compared to the other quarters, should achieve, according to our guidance previously disclosed, 2.6 times the EBITDA by the end of 2025. And so I think that when it comes to detailing this, that's pretty much it. And I'll pass the floor back to Sandra and Bill Meadow. All right. Thank you very much. Well, as you saw, the company's really focused on deleveraging at SAE. And we've been, SAE's really well-known for its strong cash generation.

We've been growing with our own cash generation. Last invest that we made. Even in this scenario with higher interest rates,

So to wrap up the presentation, of course, we also want to get into ESG and points where I'll say it's also a market reference. And an important acknowledgment, considering that the company starts off in Sao Paulo, is that we were elected for the 10th consecutive time to receive an award from Datafolha, from Datafolha de Sao Paulo, as the best cash and carry operator in Sao Paulo. That includes, of course, Brazil, and we operate differently in each region, of course, but recognizing this as the biggest market in the country really makes us proud. As well as some other acknowledgments as well. So besides this, you also have the company's maintenance within D3's index for sustainability. We've been integrating our new annual sustainability report now in the first quarter of 25. And I want to invite you all to please access this report. The material is exceptional, very good, with excellent information. And besides this, the company has 87,000 employees, so we have the biggest flow of stores and customers in physical stores. 38 million Brazilians that visit our stores. And so, of course, this is also the development of our role as social responsibility and inclusion players are really easy to view in all of the results in the company, with over 48% Black people in leadership positions, 25% of women in leadership, 33.5% of employees that are 50 or more years old. And we'll have the eighth additional of the SA Academy Award, with over 2,100 entrepreneurs being awarded. We already have over 70,000 small entrepreneurs signing up already, and that's something we've been able to do, promoting prosperity for everyone and really being recognized for our actions and measures within social responsibility. So I think that's it, and now we can get straight into Q&A. Perfect. Thank you. Now we're going to start with the Q&A session. If you have a question, please select the Q&A icon on the bottom part of the screen. Write your name, language, and company to enter the queue. As you announce the request to activate your microphone if you're on the screen, then you must select your microphone and activate it to submit your question. Please send in your questions all at once.

I'm going to begin.

Our first question comes from Rodrigo. Rodrigo, you may proceed, please. Hey, guys. Good morning. Two questions here on my side. The first is about the sales dynamic now for the second quarter. I want to understand how you're noticing this capture of the favorable calendar effect. If you look at the data, Easter helps, of course, but how does this dynamic of deflation of snails in your perception, how is it happening, and how can this help the dynamic for working capital throughout the second quarter? And the second is about the gross margin. That was a highlight in the courtroom. I'd like to know what are the main detectors and promoters of the gross margins. and how much do you think this is structural or recurring for the rest of the year those are my two questions thank you thank you well about sales in the second quarter we have this uh easter effects with uh sales a lot higher from a growth in the same stores perspective it was a lot higher than what we've seen in the first quarter but that's also because you have this easter effect i think the main thermometer So the second quarter is going to be now in May, because in April we're going to finish the calendar effect.

And now in the second quarter, we'll see the continuity of the first quarter.

The trade-down of brands has been a lot more intense than what we expected. not the first time results going through an inflationary cycle, but we attribute this pay-down effect, especially in the lower-income customers and the shifted behaviors that are going on in society. And look at the numbers in the macroeconomic scenario, like unemployment, credit in the market, social programs, and other efforts to add more income. There wasn't a an expectation for this level of trade down. So yes, we had high increases in prices, but it's definitely above what we expected. From a working capital perspective and performance as well, we've been searching for advancements in this, and especially with the delivery, the evolution of the EBITDA. When we look at the gross margins, of course, you have a series of components. There's the effect of the actual trade down. Well, sometimes someone could be looking at the numbers and say, oh, if the margin improved, then how come there's not more sales? Well, because the volumes are dropping. So what has actually led to not making the sale reach this is not a drop in volumes. No, we had an increase in volumes. And in this scenario, reducing the prices won't bring in more volumes. On the other side, a positive aspect is that we already had an expansion, the EBITDA margin or the EBIT. I was hired, which was the store network ramping up. Of course, you have a store-by-store assessment. Not necessarily does the entire network, is it promoted or scaled up on prices, but you have the trade-down that's impacting.

Yeah, the competitive advantages.

We also have initiatives and projects that impact the increases of margins. The new stores also lead to an increase, and other projects that the company's been working on to add more sales and also more margin volumes. I hope to have answered.

Rodrigo Pesce also asked about the capital of Giro, right?

I think somebody wants to talk about the working capital. All right, so you asked about working capital, right? Yeah, exactly. Actually, to make it clear here, we've been talking about, for many quarters, we kind of kept the same discourse in impractical terms. We kept discipline in our working capital. That's very strong. We plan to keep this up, up ahead, and we should not have an improvement in the working capital. Just as the interest rate impacts our business, it also impacts it for suppliers.

So we shouldn't have an improvement in the working capital.

But we have to look at this from now on, right? We have discipline also. And also, we can keep good levels of stocks and payment terms so that we can consider these during the year. We should not have variations. Of course, we have points that are seasonal, such as the increase in stock in our Easter as well as in our anniversary campaign during the third quarter, but every quarter closes with some form of variation. What I want to make very clear to everyone is that even with our leverage and our debt, this does not impact the commercial dynamic. We don't reduce the stock or block sales and purchases to the detriment of this. So we have a level of stock and coverage that is adequate for our format and model. and the way we supply the stores. So we're very comfortable to keep up what we've been delivering in the last quarter. Perfect. Thank you, Vermeer. Thank you, Benvenido, as well. Thank you for the answers. Our next question comes from Daniela Eger at XP. Dani, we'll enable your audio so you may proceed. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for taking my question. Congrats on the results. I have two. It's kind of like a follow-up of the first, but the first is about accelerating sales. You mentioned, for example, that you still have a bit of pressure from trade down, and you talked about a slight recovery in volumes, but what are you considering to be levers to accelerate these things? What's in your hands? What have you been working on already? And my second question is, is about the gross margin dynamic. As you mentioned, you presented this breakdown for batch of stores that were converted, and there's a margin that's still coming. But wouldn't it make sense if this is reinvested in competitive advantages to try to promote an increase in sales?

So it translates into margin and flows there until the end. So I think it would be these two.

Maybe you want to increase your margins and just flow it into the margins. Those are the two questions. Well, we discussed this and we actually had some tests in certain regions. And the fact that we're in 25 states makes this easier to analyze the dynamics. But what we observed is that there's not much elasticity, like the investments you place into margins would not reach much of a difference in the sales would actually be pretty much the same or even smaller. So due to some of factors that we have when it comes to the population's income and food inflation as well, this movement and according to the tests we worked on, wouldn't really make sense. When it comes to the levers, we also have always been searching for ways to improve the current operation. and supply, and there's always a area in SAI that's really focused on innovation, right? So since we have the biggest flow of customers in our stores, among all the players, we are the ones with the biggest diversity of social levels of customers and sizes of stores, et cetera, which allows us to explore many new categories. If you were at the investor day, you the highlights for the air fryers and the tires. But of course, there are other initiatives underway to really transform and increase the share of wallet, reduce expenses, and move along with an increase in margins, besides the parts required from the expansion. I hope to have answered your question. You did answer. Thank you. And congrats on the results. Our next question comes from Eric. Eric, you may proceed. Thanks, guys, for taking your questions, and congrats on the results. Two questions here. The first, if you guys could talk about how your looking at the same story dynamic for regions. You mentioned that the Northeast had a more complex reality. How are you looking at this around the country? And the second question is about the reduction

and the anticipation of receivables.

And we just want to understand and direct this a bit more to what we should expect for improvements. And how this has interacted with the average cash position you guys have reported throughout the period. Well, I'll start off, and then Ayamar will talk about the reduction of receivables. So there is a difference in the regions in Brazil. Maybe it's a lot less regional based, but a lot more social level based. So where you have a bigger amount of CDE classes is where you have more trade down, in the northeast and the north of Brazil. And when you see most of this movement, the shift in brands We monitor this very closely, region by region, so this is a lot more connected to social levels. And consequently, Brazil was not a standard process. So this also impacts the results. Hi, Mark. Can you talk about the receivables? About the receivables, the volume of receivables that have been discounted, we should keep a similar level as what we've done in these last quarters. The gross receivables have been kept in line quarter over quarter, year over year. The sales structure with the different sales on cards, et cetera, has been very stable in the last quarter. we understand that the volume of receivables will continue and also the level of receivables discounted will continue in the levels you've seen in the first quarter. And so about the average cash position, we've been keeping this level at a minimum cash level of about 1.4, 1.5 billion applied and invested daily. But of course, due to our behavior of cash flows, we have some situations where it's a little higher, a little lower. But throughout the periods, it's normally a bit higher, close to 1.7 or 1.8 billion. We should also not see much of a change in behaviors in this sense. We'll continue to keep the same level throughout the next period. Perfect. Thank you for the answers, Belmiro and Aymar. Moving on to our next question from Thales de Granella from Safra. Thales, we'll open up your mic so you may proceed, please. Good morning, Belmiro and Gabi and Aymar. I want to explore a little bit of the performance of the stores that were open and converted in 23. But we look at their performance now in the first quarter of 25 and the performance of the stores that were converted in 22. In the first quarter of 24, we see a gap in the average sales per store and the EBITDA margin. I want to understand why there is this gap. Is it about location, competition, or other factors involved? Maybe because you converted the investors first.

Perfect. I think they have both factors.

One is, of course, the location of the stores, although there is also a licensing factor. Like in Sao Paulo, we had bigger stores open first, but most of the EBITDA has a difference from the opening year. So a store network that's going to have maybe achieving three or two years, one year makes a huge difference, right? And also the store network in 22, a year before, was a lot more painful, profits getting margins. So these are stores that have different sizes, and our expectation is that throughout 2025, we'll have a better view of the first quarter in 2026. So it's just a year difference, but it's very relevant. OK. Thank you, very clear.

Our next question comes from .

I wanted to explore about this. I wanted to explore how you guys are considering CapEx for next year due to the volume of openings and how you're looking at the costs for the opening first form. So you have these 10 stores you're going to be opening and what is already mapped out within the pipeline. And the second question may be a low hanging fruit as an opportunity. How do you see the opportunity to leverage your distribution wholesale operation a bit more? Thank you. Thank you, Joseph.

The store network in 2016 still can't forecast exactly.

We had an expectation for 20 stores.

Of course, it depends a lot on the stores.

You have a store considering the size, the location, the model. If it's a store that's completely leased, if it's a sales lease back agreement or a BTS agreement. But we still don't have visibility. We still have to get the licenses. And we should get this information probably a little more clear throughout the second and third quarter of 26. Of course, the company is focused on deleveraging. And the idea is that we should balance this out with a ramp up time. They're not going to necessarily be the stores with the least investment, but the stores with the biggest growing kids here.

We still can't give you a clear vision on this yet.

The distributional sale is always an opportunity. When you look at the cash and carry, first store I say is that we still have our competitor that operates with both formats, right, with cash and carry stores. but they also have distribution wholesale. And this is a format that, to be very honest, has opportunities. The company has interest in this, but there's a market that's really focused on price and logistics. There's not a good window of opportunity at this moment because you have a lot of challenges with store maturity, maturity of the new store formats to be implemented with services. So I understand you can talk about the self-checkout. We had 100 self-check. Checkouts already being deployed. Now we have another 100. So this could, in some way, make us lose a bit of our focus on the recurring sales. But it's always an opportunity that the company can explore, of course. I hope to have answered. Perfect. Thank you, Bermuda. Our next question comes from Felipe Hussain at Citibank. Felipe, we'll open your mic so you may proceed. Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Don't we always kind of look into the net revenue minus the sales area to understand the productivity and the same-store sales? And differently than the other quarters, if we're calculating this correctly, we saw a slight improvement in productivity.

Is there any dynamic that improves or changes

maybe locations with less competition or a more aggressive dynamic thank you so i would have to look at this later on we have the analysis we can perform but there was an improvement in this first quarter but it's really coming from store productivity issues so you can remember that we're at the end of the project and so a lot of stores to receive butteries and bakeries. So maybe it could be a little more explicit on this. Well, here you have some different thesis on what would be the objective for this improvement, if there would be stores with better locations, et cetera. But of course, this is maybe more connected to the service company, et cetera. Yeah, probably yes. If you look at productivity effects, no. undeniably so because you already had artificial costs in a lot of the stores the organics in 21 and the conversions in 22 and 23 initially the focus was to open up the store then after we got into services and licensing which is a little different so as you mentioned when you consider the ram the ramp is not only about a preference and if the customers will get back to that store. But within that, we also have our work to adjust the mix, include products and services. And all of this is what's going to guarantee this ramp up. You can't have an improvement in the EBITDA if you don't have an improvement in productivity as well.

So it's not only about price.

Moving on, our next question is in English. And it comes from Andrew Rubin. Andrew, we're going to enable your mic so you may proceed. Andrew from Morgan Stanley.

for consolidation in the cash and carry sector. When you think about the 10 stores for next year, is that only organic openings or would you consider any type of M&A and what do you think would be needed by industry macro or otherwise to open up more of the consolidation opportunity? Thank you.

Thank you, Andrew.

Thank you, Andrew. Well, all of the stores are organic and our expectation for 25 and 26, obviously the company has been looking at possibilities because M&A processes have a long period between planning and execution. So the organic store takes an average of two to three years between the decision and when you're actually able to open up the store. But initially, the focus is deleveraging, right? But there was some uncertainty from an interest perspective. We just got back like a year ago to what the interest expectation is. If you consider the focus is on deleveraging, and not that the company is not looking at this, but the focus is still organic growth. If there's not a reduction in the interest rates and a bit more balance in... in the entire market when it comes to purchase power for food as well as the absorption of the amount of stores that were open. You would avoid the market consolidation that would end up happening eventually when the possible companies and buyers are more leveraged or even a merger between companies. When you consider the macroeconomic scenario in Brazil today and the cost of capital, This, in my vision, this kind of gets in the way or hinders this process. I hope to have answered your question.

Moving on.

Our next question is from Irma at Goldman Sachs. Irma, we'll ask you to open up your mic, please. You may proceed. Hey, good morning, and thanks for the opportunity. Just want to go back to the point on trade down. and understand if you guys are seeing this as a potential movement in a more structural manner, or is this more of a cyclical issue connected to the moment of the leverage and the current inflation environment with certain categories that's still pretty high. And then maybe considering this is You think it's more of a structural matter or if you maybe switch some brands to more like regional brands or explore the topic also of private label. And the second question is just quickly about understanding this new partnership you guys signed with iFood. And also, of course, that brought in a lot of growth, but I wanted to understand more about the economics there. and the profile of the consumer so that this is attracting to the platform. Thank you. All right. So we'll split this into three phases. And so we'll talk about iFood, Vlamyr. We'll talk about the regional brands. Private labels are still not a project that we're focused on in the company. Of course, we've been assessing some possibilities, but it's not what we're focusing 100% on now. because at this moment you have a big trade down actually impact. And when it comes to the trade down, yes, there is also a shift that's structural within the country. So this inflation we've always had in Brazil, there's one side that's a response to this, but especially lower income classes, Brazil became one of the biggest countries with activities on sports bets websites and that represents about over 400 billion reais per year so this has impacted people's available income and this is one of the factors besides the inflation of course and the income not really keeping up with the food consumption but there's something else that's structural happening especially with the lower social levels that have been contributing to the trade-down effect And they're very quick in adjusting brand choices. And then Anderson will talk about iFood's partnership. So then I'll come back at the end. And if you have any other questions, it'll be a pleasure to answer them.

Anderson, you want to talk about iFood? Perfect.

Thank you for the question, Ema. The partnership comes into the last mile.

We started last year.

We have about 60 stores working with this platform. They're very strong, so that leads to very positive results. But believe it or not, due to the purchase power of the stores, you have stores in regions that have lower purchase power that have excellent results and stores with lower purchase power that also have strong results. So it's been servicing pretty well, but it's another opportunity also. With our customers, we have some adaptations we're constantly searching for, but generally it's had pretty good acceptance. So we assess each store and region and we can, of course, service the customer and understand our radius of operation. We've been very well serviced and within the last mile public, I think it's another service we can share with our customers. Now, Blamir. Hey, Irma, thanks for the question. About the regionality in the trade down, the company normally has the capacity to adjust the volumes purchased, right? And not necessarily the assortment, because even in the regional brands, Açaí, for example, grew our operation and our business model really strengthened by the national brands and regional brands. That was always something that was really concerning. We had to keep an eye open on this matter constantly. And so if you look at the average assortment that comes from stores and look at the items that I work with from regional brands, I basically doubled the amount of SKUs sold on average per store because of the regionality. And what's the concern? Well, this speed that Bermuda mentioned with really being able to reallocate the volumes purchased um to serve as the trade down stop buying brand a to buy brand b then you have to migrate the supply and purchase volumes and besides the inclusion of these new categories so this is something that's already on our radar we didn't have to like register suppliers or do something very new we just have to balance out the stocks and how we supply the stores but This is already pretty much set forth. We're just maybe having an occasional market situation. We saw this strongly in the pandemic, but then it kind of adjusted, and now we have strong trade-downs. So what makes us a little more at ease is that we don't lose volume. We gain volume, and the trend is that this should be kept for the future. I hope to advance it. Perfect. Thank you so much. Now we're gonna head to our last question that comes from Iago Souza at Geniali Mission in Santiago. You can open your mic, please. Good morning, Belmiro and team. Thanks for the opportunity to have two questions here on our side. The first is about the store expansion. It should be, if you should consider the participation in another region, and understanding if it's another region where you see the biggest opportunities in the Northeast and Midwest. And the second question is about how the plans will be for the financial services after Faga's exit. Do we have any postponing in these plans? All right, Yago. No, we are not postponing our plan. Faga's exit, after his exit, me and Aimar have been keeping up with all of the projects. and we should provide more information on the second quarter. Obviously, it didn't happen at the same speed we had mentioned initially, but we're not in any way impacted when it comes to the execution of the company's projects, when it comes to discipline or capital, considering that the support team is very experienced and very .

to keep up with all of this, so.

We have other regions under analysis, but yes, we can concentrate in the Southeast and Midwest where you have agribusiness activities, which is where we have important projects for expansion. But of course, if we have to choose the reduction in stores due to the increase in cost of capital, of course, we're always going to value the projects that you look at and have, of course, you have a bunch of components in the decision making. The only one that's not in our power is licensing, right? But what we always look at and analyze is the breakeven, the returns on invested capital and the paybacks, et cetera, and actually we'll have a bigger focus in the southeast and midwest of Brazil. I hope to have answered your question. Thank you, Romero. Congratulations on the results. The Q&A session has officially ended. Now we would like to pass the floor to the company for their final remarks. Thank you, everyone, for participating. First quarter, in our vision, has results that demonstrate solidity and consistency. And this is visible in our operation. Not only this period, but if you look at the last 10 years, you'll see discipline, cash generation, adjusting to market changes. The company always tries to be a benchmark and a reference for innovation in the sector, but we also obviously have to adapt to changes in the economic reality, but we're continuing to be strong in this process, and we went through this period with a strong level of project execution. We're experiencing a scenario with challenges involving labor and expectations also of the purchase power of the population. that has not been responding as we expected. But on the other hand, this brings even more volumes for Cash and Carry, which is a channel that is the cheapest for the population to buy from and more penetration in the Brazilian households as well, which makes us continue to evolve. And we hope to present results that are positive and consistent. This expansion project gave us very relevant points, interest there, the cost of debt is here, and we have stores like Maka and Fungoyas that are going to continue, and 10 years from now, they'll still be contributing and generating positive results for the company. So once again, I want to thank my team. I would keep on strongly on the consistency of our results, cash generation, and cutting down on our debt. Thank you so much to everyone for participating. The earnings call for the first quarter of 25 at SIE is officially ended. The Investor Relations Department will be available to clarify any other questions or doubts you may have. Thank you for participating and have an excellent day, everyone.